Camera Magic.

The sky is blue, there is not a trace of a breeze, and I can hear a distant sound of a plane somewhere.

It is a beautiful quality of light, seeming to pick out every colour and detail in a surreal fashion.

Everything is Walt Disney!

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I remember years ago there was a genius of a cameraman, called Lucien Ballard, who was in great demand by all of the directors of the day because his resulting films were all so much more detailed and real than anyone else’s work.

It was especially wonderful on his cowboy films, where the big wide countryside of America looked so breathtaking.

Nowhere was this genius cinematographer’s amazing way with a camera shown to better effect than in his work on ‘Ride The High Country’, where his work was beautiful.
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So, that is the outstanding quality of my early morning.
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Big H and I still watch a lot of these earlier cowboy films because the amazing spread of America just takes your breath away in classics such as ‘The Big Country’ and ‘Will Penny’ and ‘The Wild Bunch’.
The ‘Wild Bunch’ in particular is full of his most wonderfully bleak and unsentimental camerawork.
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.John Wayne being an actor who adds just the right touch too, in the entertaining ‘True Grit’ , which had the most beautiful and romantic landscape photography, ranging from autumn tones to winter snow.
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In ‘Neveda Smith’ with the lovely Steve McQueen, Ballard’s fine camerawork turned out to be the real star of the show.
In this particular night scene I believe that Steve was almost trampled when the fencing accidentaly gave way because of the stampede.
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Ballard’s work was great, with a clean and elegant style, and he had a career to match, making over 100 films in fifty years.
And gave me a lot of pleasure too.
Still does!
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Have a fine one!
j,x.
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